Back in the 1800s, aview of Milwaukee’s harbor would have beendotted with schooners, the 18-wheelers of the Great Lakesshipping trade. According to Joe Ewing, head of marine operations at DiscoveryWorld, “There were probably 2,000 to 2,500 vessels on the Great Lakes at any one time, and over 80% of them would have beenschooners.” In one day as many as 30 of these nimble ships carried passengersand cargo in and out of our burgeoning lakeside town.
At the time,transportation on the Great Lakes waspreferred over land travel because the few roads that existed were unpaved andoften in poor condition, making land travel slow and tedious. “A trip by landfrom Buffalo to Milwaukeewould have taken three weeks or more,” Ewingexplains. “But it could be done in only five or six days on a boat.”
Schooners were thevessel-of-choice on the Great Lakes becausetheir sails are fore-and-aft rigged (meaning they are positioned along thelength of the centerboard rather than perpendicular to it), which can harnessthe fickle lake winds more effectively than a square rigger, a ship with sailsset perpendicular to the keel. Schooners were not only cheaper to build, butcheaper to man. “There are stories of vessels the Sullivan’s size being crewed by as few as five individuals,” Ewing says. “If this was a square sail ship, I’d belooking for at least three or four times that many people.”
Despite its richmaritime history, Milwaukeedidn’t have much to show for it by the late-1980s. When the Pride of Baltimore II, a reproduction ofan 1812-era Baltimore clipper privateer, sailedinto our harbor for a visit in 1989, a group of local businessmen decided itwas time for Milwaukeeto have a tall ship of its own.
The schooner was namedin honor of Captain Denis Sullivan, a successful and influential sailor andbusinessman. His schooner, the Moonlight,was called the “Queen of the Lakes,” and was the design inspiration for the Denis Sullivan. “She still holds therecord for the most round trips between here and Buffaloin a season,” Ewing says. “Twenty-two roundtrips, whereas most other boats were successful if they had a dozen.”
In 1994, MenomineeTribal Enterprises, on behalf of the Menominee Nation, donated six 75-footwhite pines for the Sullivan’s masts.Harvested from sustained-yield forests of the Menominee Indian Reservation nearNeopit, the trees were estimated to average 170 years old. Professionalshipwrights and nearly 1,000 volunteers completed work on the Sullivanin 2000.
Used for both scienceeducation and nautical training, the Sullivanjourneys more than 18,000 nautical miles every year from her summer home atDiscovery World at Pier Wisconsin by way ofthe Great Lakes, along the East Coast, and through the Caribbean to her winterhome in southern Florida.The schooner operates with a professional crew of 10, but reserves room onboardfor those looking to participate in dockside events, as well day-, multi-day-and semester-long voyages.
For more information on the S/V Denis Sullivan and her 10-year birthday celebration,visit www.discoveryworld.org.
